cement rendered inglenook

[sarahj]

Our ashlar stone (built 1837) cottage was 'renovated' and extended in 1982 - sadly, 4 years before listing. One of the renovations was to cement render the inglenook inside and out with precision-engineered edges you cut cut your bread on and a cement brick red painted hearth (the red bleeds when wet!). I would dearly love to remove all of this render but am scared that this would do more harm to the stone than leaving it on. It probably looks as immaculate as it did when first applied. Unfortunately.

I know I will have to consult CO for permission, I just wondered it anyone thought it could be successful - or will I have to employ a skilled painter in the trompe l'oielle (spelling?) style for the desired finish!

 

[Gervase]

Much depends on the stone, but cement isn't always as tricky to remove as it seems. It sticks to itself like snot to an oven door, but it sticks to the stone beneath with rather less alacrity. Thus, with judicious and carefully-angled use of the cold steel, you can usually get the cement to flake happily away from the stone. Keep your angle of attack as shallow as a Radio 2 interview and you should get most of the hard stuff to flake off.

 

[Nemesis]

You may find, however, that what is underneath is pretty unpleasant to look at, and wish to then re-render - albeit with lime.

The floor part can possibly be easily dealt with by tiling with stone or quarries.

 

[sarahj]

Re-rendering in lime sounds fine to me -there is also beam shaped indentation running across the inglenook under the render so i've got my fingers crossed for a very rare (in this house) Original Feature!

Evelyn - are you going to Wark Apple Fayre, have they had one before? We've inherited six apple trees we want identifying as dh has bought up half the cider home brew equipment in the country! Also, we have a greengage - is there a chance it will fruit this far north?

 

[Gervase]

Also, we have a greengage - is there a chance it will fruit this far north?

I wish you well - we're a lot farther south than you, and in the balmy coastal region washed by the gulf stream, and the b*gger has never shown any sign of flowering. And I love greengages, Pah! It must be an odd, anti-Welsh prejudice... :wink:

 

[sarahj]

It did get five fruits on it this year, but it is growing against the south facing front of our house, along with a lovely victoria plum, but these didn't withstand the lime repointing unfortunately, although the plums did. This area is riddled with lime kilns, so probably explains why there are so many fruit trees everywhere - we've got five plum trees in total, and all went mad this year, even the burnt one with only one bransh left (don't ask, the culprit was a retired fireman). (whoops, too mush wine).

 

[Nemesis]

I haven't been to Wark - that's a new one on me! I usually go to the one at Acorn Bank in Cumbria, but missed it last week.

Wallington Food Festival this weekend though...

I wouldn't worry over much about the apple trees just be thankful for any crop! We get a crop every now and again, but usually it's nipped by frost - ditto plums and we have a green one which may be greengages but we only get a handful about every five years!

This year has been amazing though for fruit, and the holly trees are now brilliant with berries too.

We bought one of those Vigo fruit presses about five years ago, the only promising crop we had since blew down in a storm - an ancient Bramley.

This year we had a pear - first in thirteen years - it dropped and the bloody rabbits had it!

I find that making wine is actually better than cider, you get more alcohol for your apples. But that's me all over.

Is the indentation straight? It may be the stone lintel. You may find that the cement takes the top layer off, but you could have it redressed and put a mantel shelf up.

 

[Gervase]

We bought one of those Vigo fruit presses about five years ago, the only promising crop we had since blew down in a storm - an ancient Bramley.

Ah, I'm glad i wasn't the only one. A lovely piece of iron and oak, but what they didn't tell you was the amount of effort needed to chop and smash the apples before putting them in the press.
Once the son and his girlfriend had been pressed into serevice with a shiny new spade and a box of apples, though, all was well. It's a very satisfying thing to use.

 

[Nemesis]

The other half is wittering about buying a machine for that - I said I thought I had one. Him.

 

[Gervase]

*sigh*
There must be a support group somewhere for the abused partners of women with grand ideas...

 

[Nemesis]

Yes, I have the ideas but not the cash. Sad really.

 

[biffvernon]

I find apples succumb to stomping with a pick-axe handle in a heavy plastic bucket.

 

[sarahj]

'There must be a support group somewhere for the abused partners of women with grand ideas...'

I'll put you in touch with my ex - he was a pretty good diy-er (but not a finisher) and he would say things like 'just tell me exactly what you want this cupboard/shelf/panelling to look like and I'll do it'. So I did, and then he would rant 'why do you always choose the most difficult thing to do?' etc etc. and then I would say 'just tell me what you CAN do'. I remember a particular example of having to put up with horizontal tongue and groove along the bath instead of vertical because it was less work........

I've since been on a Women Only Wednesday Woodwork course and now do all my skirtings/dado/panelling myself. Much less bother than waiting for someone else to get around to it and you usually get exactly what you want or an acceptable comprise!

 

[Nemesis]

Oh, the other half is pretty good - and I usually get exactly what I want! no messing!

But good for you re the woodwork course.

 

[geoff]

On the inglenook question, if you get the cement off and it looks a bit grotty, you could always limewash the stone - leaving the actual stone exposed is pretty much a modern thing, it was quite probably limewashed when first built anyway. Limewash would be 'authentic', practical, lighten the room up and the ones I've seen limewashed often look cosmetically good too.

 

[sarahj]

Thank you for your encouraging replies - I'm now looking forward to 'removing the mask' even if I do end up coating it in a traditional material. Can't wait to see if that beam or lintel is there!

 

[Nemesis]

I suspect in fact it was like ours (we aren't so far away) and had an early range.

We have two such fire openings, neither now have the range, but there may not have been a great deal of the stone on show, so it's pretty rubbishy stuff really.

One is exposed (sadly someone before us cement pointed it - it will be removed eventually, but so much else to do...) and the other we removed the three layers of tiles, cement etc, then looked and thought Ugh so lime plastered it.

I did find from a previous house that limewashing the rough stone made keeping it clean more difficult as soot tended to collect on the top of the stones. Thought a smoother finish may help.


Housework isn't my thing really.

PS the cement in real life isn't anything like as bad as in the pic!

The puss is Polly.

 

[Penners]

I've since been on a Women Only Wednesday Woodwork course and now do all my skirtings/dado/panelling myself.

Do they run a Men Only Woodwork course on trouserings/dado/panelling?

 

[bournonite]

Back to cider: Its hard to use pickaxe handles when your annual crop grows from 1 two ton dumper load (you drive under the tree and shake to fill the bucket, then move on.... ) to about two or three. I just invite a load of friends, put on some bottles of wine and last years cider, and get the girls chopping, the boys turning the crusher, and the rest of us on the press... I even had holidaymakers staying on the farm joining in this year... ! And Nemesis - you cant make cider out of bramleys - the juice is ridiculously acid, and you'll need about a kilo of chalk dust per gallon to remove the acid and make it drinkable - ideally you need 70 to 75% cider apples with the remainder being SWEET eating apples...

The press and crusher are from Vigo...

 

[bournonite]

This is one of the inglenooks at my place - excuse the awful woodburner (on ebay at the moment - the new one is on the way..) No sign of it ever being limewashed - stone pillars on either side dated to 1642...

Note the worn bit on the left hand side where they sharpened the knives on the stone pillar...